Eagle Point Crit

Came into this race with one goal, at least hang with the pack for most of the race.  Last year this race was my first crit, and I got lapped and 15th place, so I was hoping to see an improvement.  Got to the line and there was only 7 of us, kinda shocking since last year there was 18, but no biggie.  The first lap was a nice "easy" pace and then on the second lap the attacks began, the 6 of us in the pack worked well to cover any attacks and keep us together.  On lap 7 I heard a sound I didn't wanna hear, one of the guys behind me went down hard, and you could hear him hit the ground, they ended up stopping the race so they could get the ambulance in to him, he ended up breaking his collarbone, which seems to be a very common injury in cycling.  So while they were working on him they rest of us just rode a section of the course so we could keep our legs loose.  They restarted us with 5 to go, and it was on, we rode together for the next 4 laps with very minimal attacks, on the final lap there is a short little climb, a left hander and then the finishing straight, I was sitting 2 wheel at the hill, and one guy went so I chased him down and tried to hold his wheel.  One of the other guys came with and the 3 of us and there was less than a bike length between us, so I ended up in 3rd place.  So I made my goal of staying with the pack, and I also go a top 5 finish, which was another goal in a crit.  Next weekend is the Old Capitol Crit in Iowa City,  so we will see how I do at that one, hopefully stay with the pack there too.

Eagle Point Crit 4-20-08